The corporate regulator noted concerns that Guardian Advice had failed to comply with its general obligations as a licensee, including monitoring and supervising its representatives and ensuring they were adequately trained or competent, and that a number of clients suffered harm as a result of these failures.

Additionally, ASIC said Suncorp undertook to compensate clients who may have been at risk of having received poor advice from ‘high-risk’ advisers, who were identified using a range of risk metrics applied to all advisers in the Guardian Advice network, and that affected clients were also compensated under this remediation program.

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.